The Republic of Rwanda

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Political Systems

Rwanda’s political parties are represented by the Liberal Party (PL), the party for Progress and Concord (PPC), Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and the Social Democratic Party (PSD). The former leader of the Liberal Party, Protais Mitali, is wanted by the Interpol for embezzlement of fraud and theft. Mitali is in exile and has been suspected to be there since the government questioned him about the missing funds; he was supposed to have returned to Kigali after his resignation but instead took a flight to a European destination and has not returned. (allafrica) The Rwandan Patriotic front is the ruling political party and is led by the current president, Paul Kagame.

Criminal Justice System

Rwanda’s legal system is based on Belgium law and their own constitution that was introduced in June 2003. Belgium Law is a civil law system and is a member of the European union. Rwanda’s constitution was last updated in 2003 and it replaced the previous one from 1991. In this constitution it discusses how presidents will serve seven year terms, how they will have a two house parliament, and multi-party politics. In the preamble of this constitution, it addresses the era of genocide and how the country looks to the future with hopes of prosperity and reconciliation. On April 6,1994, the killings of presidents from Rwanda and Burundi ignited several weeks of intense massacres. 1 million people were estimated to have been killed and it became clear to the community that these were acts of genocide; between 150,000 and 250,000 women were also raped during this time. (United Nations) The acts from genocide were so brutal and painful that the government decided that laws should be put in place to prevent people from committing these acts again. There were over 100,000 genocide suspects awaiting trial in 2001 and the government implemented a participatory justice system known as Gacaca. The purpose of this system were to help assist with the pileup of cases. The Gacaca courts are intended to help the community participate in the process of justice and reconciliation for the country. Members of the community elected judges to hear the trails of genocides since the country had lost most of its judicial personnel. (United Nations) Just like the American justice system, the Rwandan system has three branches of government. They also have a supreme court which is their highest court system. If a person wants to study law in Rwanda, they have to complete an advanced level of education and have to have passed highly in their class. They must attend a law degree program that is a four-year program and to be able to practice they must spend two years being supervised under a senior lawyer. After this is completed they can apply to be admitted to the bar. Rwanda also has the highest representation of women in Parliament; 64% of Rwanda’s members of Parliament are women.

Recent Issues of Crime

The next topic is crime and while conducting research I’ve learned that Rwanda rarely ever has any violent crimes. However, petty theft and pick pocketing are common. Purse snatching, and theft of phones and electronics are among the most common. They also have petty theft in public places like hotel rooms. Another form of crime in Rwanda is residential crime; such as things being stolen from someone’s yard or forcible entry of homes to commit a robbery. Most times the homes that are targeted are homes where the residents are not there.

Rwanda classifies its violent crimes as carjacking, robbery, rape and home invasion. They report that these crimes rarely happen but in 2015, the Embassy received several reports of late night assaults and robberies on pedestrians. An area of concern for tourists and foreigners is if there are any “off limit” areas in Rwanda but they suggest that visitors should exercise caution in crowded markets, night clubs or any other tourist areas. In regards to police response, the Rwandan National Police lack specialized skills in investigation, forensics, bomb disposal, etc. Their resources are extremely limited and they are unable to respond to emergency calls in a timely manner. Police will instead often direct a caller to the nearest police station to file a complaint in person. (OSAC) I’m shocked to know that crime rates are not higher or that violent crime rates are not higher because of this. Usually when the police department lacks, the citizens and country will suffer because of it. I would’ve thought that the citizens will take advantage of the lack of resources their police department has and commit more crime because it may be easier to get away with. Another concern is that the citizens could be in serious danger and they have to wait to get a response or basically handle the situations themselves. The safety of the people should be a main concern and it doesn’t seem that it is. The overall crime and safety rating is a medium and the current update on these facts are for 2016.

Terrorism and Other Hazardous Issues

A more serious crime issue is terrorism and Rwanda has had a few issues over the years regarding that. In recent years, grenade attacks have been aimed at the citizens of Rwanda. One in 2014 and another in 2013 resulted in two fatalities and 18 injuries to patrons and workers. (OSAC) Although the backlash from these attacks weren’t more harmful than they could have been, this is something that Rwanda can work on too, to pursue the safety of its citizens and for people who may want to visit. This ultimately can affect the money that the country can make from foreigners because if a tourist feels that they will be unsafe on their visit because of grenade attacks or some other crime happening then that will stop them from coming; they will choose to spend their money elsewhere. Rwanda also has earthquakes and volcano eruptions. The last volcano eruption was in 2002 and it killed 47 people, however, the volcano is still active and is the greatest threat to Rwanda’s infrastructure. The last earthquake was in 2015 and it measured in at a 5.8 magnitude and it killed 3 people and injured many others. All in all, Rwanda has many different crimes that occur throughout the country but as you have already read the most common is petty theft and pickpocketing.

Areas of Comparisons

When it comes to comparisons between Rwanda and the United States, we have more things in common than a person would expect. For starters, we share the same level of governmental branches. We each have a legislative, executive, and judicial branch. In Rwanda, the executive branch consists of the Prime Minister, Ministers, Ministers